Microsoft accused of censoring Chinese-language search

Research claims Bing search engine censors Chinese-language results around the
world

Searches for potentially controversial terms such as “Dalai Lama” produce very different results when they are carried out in Chinese than they do in English, even if both searches are carried out on US soil, Greatfire said.

Satya Nadella is facing his first major test as Microsoft’s new chief executive, after the technology giant was accused of censoring Chinese-language search results.

According to research by Greatfire.org, an anti-censorship campaign blog, Microsoft’s Bing search engine filters Chinese-language results around the world, in the same way as it does in mainland China

Searches for potentially controversial terms such as “Dalai Lama” produce very different results when they are carried out in Chinese than they do in English, even if both searches are carried out on US soil, Greatfire said.

Its claims are likely to raise questions about whether Beijing is trying to extend its censorship regime to the Chinese populations of other countries, and whether Microsoft is making inappropriate concessions.

They will also present Mr Nadella with the first public test of his leadership skills, since he was appointed chief executive of Microsoft last week. Microsoft had not commented by the time of publication.

The research took account of phrases terms such as “Dalai Lama”, “Falun Gong” and “June 4 incident” – the way Chinese people refer to the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square – and was carried out using FreeWeibo, a tool which lets people search Chinese-language websites free of censorship.

Users searching for “Dalai Lama” in Chinese were offered a link to information about a documentary produced by CCTV, the Chinese state-owned broadcaster, before any other search results of results linked to two entries on Baidu Baike, a heavily-censored online encyclopedia. Yahoo, whose search engine is powered by Bing, produced the same results.

By contrast, Google produces broadly similar results for web searches conducted in the US, regardless of whether the terms are searched for in Chinese or English.

“Bing is filtering out links and stories that the Chinese authorities would deem damaging,” Greatfire said. “If this practice continues, China will move one step closer to cleansing the internet of information it does not want the rest of the world to know about.”

Microsoft blamed the results on an error, adding: "Bing does not apply China’s legal requirements to searches conducted outside of China."

Mr Nadella was named chief executive of Microsoft last week, 22 years after the Indian-born engineer joined the US business. He succeeded Steve Ballmer, who remains on the Microsoft board.

However, Mr Nadella’s appointment was overshadowed by the news that Bill Gates, Microsoft’s founder, had stepped down as chairman to return to a more hands-on role as technology advisor at the business.